MILWAUKEE – On one of its most successful stretches in recent program history, Milwaukee enters this week as winners of nine of its last 12 contests, including a 3-1 week this past week that includes a pair of walk-off wins over Northern Kentucky on Friday and Saturday.

The Panthers will play five games this week with four of them on the road beginning with Northwestern on Tuesday, before the team plays its annual home game against Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) on Wednesday at American Family Field, home of Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers. The week will close with a three-game trip to Niles, Ohio, as the Panthers will be dueling with the Penguins of Youngstown State from Friday through Sunday in northeastern Ohio.

Milwaukee will play at Northwestern's Rocky and Berenice Miller Park at 3:30 p.m. in Evanston, Illinois, before a 5:30 p.m. first pitch at American Family Field on Wednesday. The series at Youngstown State will feature 4:00 p.m./2:00 p.m./11:00 a.m. (CT) start times this weekend.

Tuesday's game at Northwestern will be feature live video as well as live stats, while Panther home game on Wednesday at American Family Field will only be available via audio streaming on the Black & Gold Network with Scott Warras on the call in addition to live stats. Links for the Youngstown State series, which will include live stats, and potentially live audio coverage with all links found on MKEPanthers.com.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Northwestern enters Tuesday's matchup with a 6-28 overall record with a 3-9 mark in the Big Ten, which is 12th out of the 13-team league. The Wildcats are on a three-game skid after dropping a three-game set to Rutgers this past weekend, with the team's most recent win coming by knocking off Northern Illinois on April 18 with a 16-run outburst.

Under the direction of first-year head coach Jim Foster, who most recently led the Black Knights of Army-West Point, has been tasked with rebuilding the current team that is only hitting .247 on the season and has been outscored 333-181 through its first 34 contests. The offense has been led by Stephen Hrustich's .324 batting average as the senior has 13 extra-base hits and driven in a team-high 20 runs this season. Sophomore Alex Calarco is leading the team in hits with 38 and is one off the team lead with 19 RBIs as the sophomore currently leads the Wildcat offense with 12 two-base hits. Graduate student Griffin Arnone leads Northwestern in home runs with 10 with his last coming in the team's 24-20 slugfest lost to UIC on April 11.

As a staff, Northwestern has a 9.18 earned run average with the staff giving up 296 earned runs and 333 total runs, while allowing opponents to hit .326 on the season. Freshman Sam Garewal was last week's midweek starter for the Wildcats, and currently has an 0-3 record with a 6.91 ERA in 11 total appearances and four starts. Junior Ben Grable has been a bright spot on the Wildcat staff with a 3.93 ERA in 18 1/3 innings as he has been on the mound 11 times and has a 1-0 record with the team's only save on the year. Junior Kellen Pate has also done well in eight-plus innings of work and has not allowed a hit in his last three outings, including 1 2/3 innings this past weekend against Rutgers. The staff has been prone to the home run ball as the staff has allowed a league-worst 65 home runs.

Northwestern has been the worst defensive team in the Big Ten this season with a .961 fielding percentage and a league-worst 49 errors.

SCOUTING THE RAIDERS
MSOE currently sits in the fifth position in the always-congested top half of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference with a 9-7 league mark and a 17-10 overall record under former Panther shortstop Steve Sanfilippo, who played for the Panthers from 2003-05. Sanfilippo has amassed 173 wins since taking over the Raider program in the spring of 2014 and won a career-high 27 games a year ago in 2022.

The Raiders are hitting .326 as a team this season, which includes team leader junior Blake Hall, who has a .482 average, which is good enough for second in the NACC as he leads the team with 41 hits and six home runs. Hall is one of four players for the team lead with seven doubles on the year, as senior Micah Overley also has seven doubles to go along with a team-best 31 RBIs. Six of MSOE's regulars have averages of .311 or better, even though the Raiders are only the seventh best team on offense in the NACC.

Freshman Caden Morton was MSOE's most recent midweek starter, as he threw two innings against Whitewater on April 19. The right-hander has a 7.71 ERA in seven outings as he has made just two starts on the year. Junior Jeffery Stanish has been the Raiders' most-used reliever with 10 appearances and is among the team leaders with a 4.30 ERA over 14 2/3 innings. The Raider staff has pitched 231 innings this year and has a 4.68 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP, while holding opponents to a .271 batting average. Six different MSOE pitchers have at least one save, while the team has had three starters pitch at least one complete game.

MSOE is tops on defense in the 13-team Division III conference, with a league-best .974 fielding percentage, while committing only 26 errors in 27 games. The Raiders are the fifth-best fielding team in all of Division III.

SCOUTING THE PENGUINS
Milwaukee and Youngstown State met at Franklin Field on Friday, March 24 and were only able to get a doubleheader in as weather forced the cancellation of the third game of the series. The 7-32 Penguins have been scuffling of late as losers of their last eight contests heading into a non-conference tilt against Akron on Tuesday before welcoming the Panthers to Eastwood Field beginning on Friday.

Junior Trey Law has been a hit machine for the Penguin offense, with a Horizon League leading 60 hits on the year as he is 45th in all of Division I with base knocks this season. After starting his season 0-for-12 over the first three games of the season, Law has hit safely in 28 of 32 games since his slow start, including one of those three hitless efforts in game two against Milwaukee. Senior Braeden O'Shaughnessy has five home runs and 13 total extra-base hits as he has driven in 21 runs, while brother Padraig leads Youngstown State with 36 RBIs. Fifth-year senior Steven D'Eusanio has also chipped in with 41 hits and a team-leading 16 doubles to help an offense that has hit .365 on the year and scored 220 runs.

Youngstown's pitching staff has a league-worst 9.10 ERA over 323 1/3 innings, allowing 327 earned runs and 392 overall runs in 39 games. Milwaukee was only able to score one unearned run off Penguin starter Travis Perry in their first meeting, while Braden Gebhardt allowed just one hit and struck out three over two innings in the 2-1 YSU win. Gebhardt started last weekend against Oakland in his fifth start of the year and now has a 7.20 ERA over 40 innings of work. Perry leads the Penguin staff with a 4.94 ERA over 47 1/3 innings, while Nick Perez leads the team with 50 1/3 innings pitched and has a team-best 46 strikeouts to go along with his 8.40 ERA. Freshman Zach Stayduhar has been relied upon out of the bullpen on 13 occasions, while fifth-year senior Patrick Gumto leads the Penguins with 15 relief outings including a 2 1/3 relief outing against the Panthers in the 9-2 MKE win in late March.

SERIES HISTORY
Milwaukee and Northwestern have met 31 times all-time with the Panthers winning 11 contests, most recently on April 17, 2018, a 6-4 win in Evanston. The Wildcats are on a three-game winning streak against the Panthers including an 8-0 and 21-8 win a season ago in 2022. Milwaukee is 8-17 on the road in Evanston, Illinois.

In eight all-time meetings the Panthers are unblemished with a perfect 8-0 mark against the Raiders, including last year's 5-2 win over the Raiders at American Family Field. Milwaukee has scored double digits in five of the all-time meetings and have outscored MSOE by an 86-30 in the all-time series.

The Panthers have a 69-43 record against Youngstown State, the most wins for the Panthers against any opponent since becoming a Division I institution. After splitting the brief two-game set at Franklin Field earlier this season, the two sides are now 5-5 in the last 10 meetings dating back late May in 2021. The Panthers are 4-6 over their last 10 games in northeast Ohio.

WALK IT OFF X3
Milwaukee has had three walk-off wins over the last two homestands, with wins coming on April 7 against Wright State, while also picking up last at bat wins against Northern Kentucky on both April 21 and 22. Luke Seidel had the game-winning hits in both the April 7 and 21st contests, while Justin Hausser had the game winner with a double against the Norse on April 22.

After going walk-off-less in 2022, the three walk offs this year were Milwaukee's first walk-off victory since April 11, 2021, when the Panthers had a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning in a 12-8 Horizon League victory over Youngstown State at Franklin Field. Catcher Jack Kraus connected on a home run as he ended the game 3-for-6 with 6 RBIs.

SEIDEL'S BIG WEEK
As Milwaukee went 3-1 against Illinois State and Northern Kentucky this past week, the Panthers were paced by leadoff man Luke Seidel was 8-for-11 in three games for the Panthers with two doubles, and a triple while driving in three runs and scoring four. Seidel also walked once and stole two bases on the wee, as he bumped his season average to .289. Seidel had an OPS of 1.841.

IT'S CLINE TIME
Marcus Cline has been hot for the Panthers over the last six games as the junior has gone 12-for-24 at the plate with leads the team with seven RBIs over that span while also scoring five runs. The Panther shortstop has collected extra-base hits in four of the six contests including his first triple of the season on Sunday against Northern Kentucky.

While Cline is only hitting .234 on the season, his average is nearly 60 points higher at .293 in conference games with six of his nine doubles coming against Horizon League opponents.

THE LAST DOZEN
Over Milwaukee's last 12 games, the Panthers are 9-3 overall with a 6-1 mark in home games and a 7-2 record in Horizon League contests. As a team the Panthers are hitting .297 with nine home runs and 79 runs scored. MKE is slugging at a .439 clip led by Aaron Chapman's .702 slugging percentage with three home runs and four doubles in his 47 at bats. Milwaukee has been active on the base paths over the last dozen contests with 21 steals in 27 attempts.

Seven Panthers have driven in at least six runs over the stretch with Chapman, Mark Connelly and Ty Olejnik lead the way with nine RBIs. Jack Thelen and Carson Hansen have eight RBIs each, while Marcus Cline also drove in seven. Justin Hausser has six RBIs over the span, including the game-winning walk-off double against Northern Kentucky on Saturday.

OUT OF THE BULLPEN
This past weekend, the Milwaukee bullpen pitched 12 2/3 innings against Northern Kentucky and allowed just one earned run over that span while striking out nine Norse. Nick Gilhaus led the way as he pitched 4 2/3 innings with five strikeouts, while Sam Mathews threw 4 1/3 innings including a season-high 3 1/3 innings on April 22.

Mike Sullivan chipped in with 1 2/3 innings, while Johnny Kelliher threw held the Norse hitless for 1 1/3 innings. Curtis Sheahan held Northern Kentucky off the board for the final two outs of the series on April 23.

FLYING HIGH
It was a game of highs in the third game of the team's series at Purdue Fort Wayne on April 15 as the Panthers scored a season-high 15 runs, on a season-best 19 hits. The team also had several additional season-high marks in the game including RBIs (12), Home Runs (2), Triples (1), Stolen Bases (4), and team batting average (.432).

ONE SWING, MULTIPLE MARKS
With his home run in the top of the ninth inning at Purdue Fort Wayne in the series finale on Saturday, Aaron Chapman recorded his 100th hit and 50th RBI in a Panther uniform, just two seasons. Fittingly, he accomplished his Panther marks against his former team in the Mastodons in his final at bat in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

HOW SWEEP WAS THAT?
With its sweep of Wright State from April 6-8, Milwaukee notched its first sweep against any conference opponent since late March of 2021, when the Panthers swept Purdue Fort Wayne in the team's facility-opener at Franklin Field. The sweep was also Milwaukee's first series sweep against Wright State since May 17-19 of 2012, which also came at home in Wisconsin.

THE UNCONVENTIONAL CYCLE
Mark Connelly recorded the first-ever cycle in Panther baseball history during the teams win on March 31 over Oakland. Connelly got the more 'difficult' hits out of the way early with a triple in the first inning and a home run in the fifth. He later added the double in the seventh inning and rounded out his cycle with a base knock in the eighth inning.

DON'T DO IT…HE DID IT
In an impressive showing on March 24, senior Jack Thelen threw our four attempted baserunners against him in the team's doubleheader against Youngstown State. On the season, Thelen has thrown out 15 baserunners against this season, one behind conference leader Brandon Heidal of Oakland. Thelen is second in the conference with 261 putouts and is also second in the Horizon League in total chances with 295 (one shy of the league lead).

TWO-FOR-ONE SPECIAL
In the opening game of the series at Northern Kentucky on March 17, Aaron Chapman connected on two home runs becoming the 68th Panther to have at least two home runs in a single game. He joins current teammates Jake Novak and Nate DeYoung with multi-home run games.

Novak accomplished the feat on February 19 a season ago at Alabama A&M, while DeYoung had a three-home run game on April 15 last season at Youngstown State and had a pair of round-trippers on May 6, 2022, at Northern Kentucky. The program record is four home runs in one game set back on March 17, 1999, when Todd Ludwig had four home runs at home against Butler.

RUBBER-ARM MAN
Sam Mathews has appeared in 23 games thus far through the team's first 36 on the season and is currently ninth in the country in appearances, three shy of tying the national leaders. He currently leads the Horizon League in pitching appearances in his final collegiate season.

The program's single-season appearance leader is Matt Freisleben, who appeared in 37 games during the 2002 season. No pitcher for Milwaukee has appeared in over 32 games in over a decade, with the last coming in 2012 as Kaleb Engelke pitched in 32 games that season.

TOUGH TO STRIKEOUT
Mark Connelly is currently 11th in all of NCAA Division I in the category of 'Toughest to Strikeout' having struck out in only nine times in 141 at bats. His number is currently leading the Horizon League having struck out in just one of every 15.7 at bats. Aaron Chapman is not far behind and is currently 29th in the nation, striking out just once every 12.6 at bats.

THE STOLEN BASE RACE
In 36 games, Milwaukee's Luke Seidel has stolen 16 bases on the season and is currently 102nd in Division I in stolen bases, while he is 101st in the country in stolen bases per game at 0.44. He currently leads the conference in stolen base percent at 16-for-16, no other player in the Horizon League has more than 10 stolen bases without being caught this season.

In Milwaukee history, Seidel is now fourth on the all-time stolen base list with 47 for his career, with the all-time program record set at 98 by Luke Meeteer from 2012-16.

SAVING THE DAY
Nate DeYoung has already recorded a league-best eight saves as Milwaukee has relied heavily on the senior righty to lock down eight of the team's 19 wins on the season thus far. DeYoung is currently ninth in NCAA Division I in saves, with the with just eight pitchers in the country recording at least nine saves, including the national leaders with 12.

CAUGHT HIM LOOKING
With 63 strikeouts on the year, Riley Frey is currently leading the Horizon League in total strikeouts. Frey also leads the league with the most strikeouts looking, getting 24 of his 64 strikeouts glaring at his third strike, including five in his start against Northern Kentucky on April 21. Luke Hansel is tied for sixth in the league in strikeouts looking with 13 of his 59 strikeouts have been looking.

KEEPING IT IN THE PARK
Through the team's first 36 games this season, Milwaukee pitching has only allowed 25 home runs this season. The number is currently tops in the Horizon League, as the other five members of the six-team conference have all allowed at least 33 or more home runs. Oakland has allowed the most home runs this season with 60 given up, while Purdue Fort Wayne has yielded 53 long balls.

CATCH ALL THE ACTION
Thanks to ESPN+, Milwaukee baseball fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. All of Milwaukee's home games will be carried live online at ESPN+, excluding the April 26 game at American Family Field. The Horizon League and ESPN have an agreement that includes ESPN hosting the league's digital network on the ESPN+ platform.

ESPN+ offers fans thousands of live events, on-demand content, and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $9.99 a month (or $99.99 per year) and can cancel at any time. For road games, visit MKEPanthers.com for live coverage links.